Friday, November 16, 2007

Celebrate this holiday season with an astonishing multi-ethnic and multi-talented cast of performers in a family program celebrating many of our winter holidays.CIRCLE OF LIGHT will enlighten, entertain, and delight you and yours with stories, song, dance, and more.In a time of great tension and unrest, this is our offering toward healing.Featured are Christmas around the Americas (including Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, and regions of the United States); the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah; the African-American celebration of Kwanzaa; the Hindu celebration of Diwali; and the Islamic observance of Ramadan.All of these holidays, sacred and secular, are fascinating and profoundly moving human rituals.CIRCLE OF LIGHT links these traditions through themes of light, hope, faith, joy, love, family and giving, while honoring the differences each traditions offers.Languages heard throughout the performance include English, Spanish, Hebrew, Portuguese, Yiddish and more.Please join us for a memorable holiday event.

Austin Lyric Opera • 901 Barton Springs Rd •

Saturday, December 15 •

Two Performances: 2 & 8 pm

Tickets:$18 general admission; $12 children and seniors

For tickets or other inquiries please contact CreOp at 512.448.3485 or creop@texas.net.

FOR TICKET INFO & OTHER INQUIRIES: Contact the Church of the Friendly Ghost at 786 2015 or email halfmanhalfpie@hotmail.com.

Event DescriptionTo commemorate this September 11, Alex Coke will lead the Creative Opportunity Orchestra in a performance of his jazz orchestra suite Iraqnophobia. Originally recorded and released on the VoxLox label in 2005, Iraqnophobia “(is a) deep meditation on human rights, peace, and social justice. For all (its) sensuous aesthetic, this composition is also a critical work of musical citizenship. Like Alan Pogue’s stunning photographs (included in the CD package), it directly confronts the brutal circumstances of life in war zones. (It) causes us to ask about the pain and misery of these places, and in doing so advocate(s) for compassion and human dignity.” – Steven Feld, MacArthur Fellow, Professor of Anthropology and Music, University of New Mexico

Please join the Creative Opportunity Orchestra and the Church of the Friendly Ghost for this special presentation on September 11th, at the Salvage Vanguard Theater in East Austin.

“Tina Marsh and CO2 have many years commissioned and performed works of musical conscience. As Austin’s premier aggregation of progressive musical spirits, their agenda has been as much social as musical, asking us to remember that music is not just a passive pleasure but also an active form of soul searching.” – Steven Feld, Professor of Anthropology and Music, University of New Mexico

Bill Shoemaker wrote: “Songs are effective vehicles for the delivery of outrage, and the history of protest music is only slightly shorter than the history of music itself. Musical expression of political protest reached its greatest concentration in the 20th century … as I listened to Coke’s music, the messages about domestic ills (prisons and social justice) and foreign-policy mistakes (the Iraq war) receded. They were not lost but were superseded by accomplished writing, improvising and ensemble playing. The pieces incorporate elements of Southern blues, modern mainstream jazz, avant garde classical music, free jazz and middle-Eastern songs. Iraqnophobia makes a solid case that jazz remains a vital American medium for the advocacy of peace and social justice.” – Bill Shoemaker

CO2 will be followed by trombonist Brian Allen and drummer Hernan Hecht as part of their US Duo Tour.

The Brian Allen and Hernan Hecht Duo creates anthems for last place soccer teams, jams for alien big band dances, and songs for calculus teachers. Augmenting their respective primary instruments of trombone and drums, Brian and Hernan employ all manner of electronics: 8 bit video game sounds, samplers, melodica and various other toys and noisemakers. Tonight's Austin performance kicks off their southwestern U.S. tour, formally releasing their debut CD "Huiepi" into the wilderness.

This is the first U.S. duo performance of native Texas Allen and Argentinean-born, Mexico City-based Hecht. Their playing has been focused in Mexico, beginning in the Yucatan this past January with additional tours in the greater Mexico City area, made possible by Brian's Meet the Composer Global Connections Grant. Brian has been heard with Anthony Braxton, Mark Dresser and Roswell Rudd, his trio with Tony Malaby and Tom Rainey, the duo Brainkiller, and as a composer for chamber, jazz and wind ensembles. Hernan also travels wide circles, working in a trio with Bill Carrothers, gigging with Dave Fiuczynsky and Scott Henderson, touring his Gru-B Project and XPression Quartet, scoring music for documentaries, and playing drums in pop singer Ely Guerra's band. For more info, see www.braintone.com and www.hernanhecht.com.

Friday, June 15, 2007

The Creative Opportunity Orchestra celebrates the release of their latest CD, Migration (their first official recording in almost a decade!), with a performance at the beautiful Laguna Gloria. ($15 General Admission; $12 Students, Seniors, Artists; $8 Children 12 and under)

Monday, June 11, 2007

First person to read this and send an email to creop@texas.net with "I want the tickets!" in the subject line will win 2 tickets to the Friday, June 15 performance by the Creative Opportunity Orchestra! Details of the concert are below.

FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 7:30pm - LAGUNA GLORIA AMPHITHEATRE(3809 W. 35th St.):- The Creative Opportunity Orchestra celebrates the release of their latest CD, Migration (their first official recording in almost a decade!), with a performance at the beautiful Laguna Gloria. ($15 General Admission; $12 Students, Seniors, Artists; $8 Children 12 and under)

Join the Creative Opportunity Orchestra as we present the 6th Annual NEW JAZZ Series, 3 days of great jazz music from the Creative Opportunity Orchestra, jazz legends Kidd Jordan and Alvin Fielder, New York pianist Bob Rodriguez, and more. The Orchestra will release their first new recording, Migration, in almost a decade!

FRIDAY, JUNE 15, 7:30pm - LAGUNA GLORIA AMPHITHEATRE(3809 W. 35th St.):- The Creative Opportunity Orchestra celebrates the release of their latest CD, Migration (their first official recording in almost a decade!), with a performance at the beautiful Laguna Gloria. ($15 General Admission; $12 Students, Seniors, Artists; $8 Children 12 and under)

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Our Purpose & History

Among the many pioneers on the Austin music scene, the Creative Opportunity Orchestra stands as one of the boldest and certainly the jazziest. Beginning in 1980, CO2 dared to cross the unknown frontiers of avant-garde jazz and improvisational music. Led by Texas Hall of Fame vocalist Tina Marsh, whose singing has been called “scat to the highest power,” CO2 set out to break free of the pressures of commercial nightclub performance and explore composition and improvisation possibilities in a large-group format. With innovative compositions, laced with free-form inventions and the unique vocalizations of Marsh, CO2 has accelerated the genre into the modern age with an avant-garde jazz sound mixed with a world music sensibility. Originally consisting of 20 members, the orchestra has involved more than 200 musicians over its 26 years, including guest artists such as Roscoe Mitchell, Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Billy Hart, and Kenny Wheeler.

Our generous supporters:

Creative Opportunity Orchestra is funded in part by the City of Austin through the Cultural Arts Division, the Texas Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Chamber Music America, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Still Water Foundation, SBC Foundation, with generous help from the Austin Lyric Opera, Epistrophy Arts, DiverseArts, Blue Lapis Light, Greenlights, Zachary Scott Theatre, and Sharir+Bustamante DanceWorks.